Scooting to a New Era in Active Transportation: Examining the Use and Safety of E-Scooters

Principal Investigator:

Co-investigators:

Summary:

The modern transportation paradigm is an ever-shifting target, and most recently, micro-mobility options such as electric shared scooter systems (e-scooters) have been contributing to local municipalities’ ability to adapt. Although several agencies have moved towards a “regulate-pilot-evaluate-revise” approach to addressing the transformative technologies of e-scooters, the seemingly overnight proliferation of this new mode in urban areas has brought a great deal of discussion about how this technology is (and should) be used by the consumer. Safety considerations for both e-scooter and conventional transportation mode users is of great concern to planners and decision makers. It is important to understand the characteristics of micro-mobility users to determine the potential impacts of the ubiquitous adoption of this new mode. If users are coming from other modes, or if they are making trips that otherwise would not have been made, this has implications on future demand for active transportation infrastructure.
This study leverages on-going work at the University of Utah focusing on safety implications of e-scooters and an on-going collaboration between the University of Arizona and the City of Tucson to monitor a six-month pilot of e-scooters in the Tucson, Arizona area. This study considers three specific research questions:
Q1. Are micro-mobility options synergistic, substitutive, or complementary to conventional transportation modes (e.g., biking via personal or shared bicycles, walking, public transit or automobile use) for different trip purposes and activities (e.g., commuting, restaurants, grocery stores, or recreational)?
Q2. How safely do micro-mobility users interact with other modes in different types of active transportation infrastructure?
Q3. Are the use and safety implications disproportionately linked to specific users (e.g., demographics, infrastructure and/or urban context locations) and trip purposes or activities?